Monday, March 16, 2009

We know how

We know how, somebody ask us.

By Gerald: Internet Anthropologist Think Tank

03.16.09

A huge bot attack against the WWW nodes has been reconigized

as a WMD. Something we have been claiming for years.

As if such attacks weren't worrying enough, military and private sector security experts attending a recent Cyber Warfare conference in London claimed attacks can only get worse because our electronic infrastructure is so poorly defended. What's more, computer scientists do not yet know how to defend critical systems against attacks, says Amit Yoran of NetWitness, an electronic security company based in Herndon, Virginia. "We are largely blind and ignorant of how to protect ourselves against cyber-attacks," he told delegates. "Advanced threats continue to evade deployed solutions."

So worried are governments by the prospect of an all-out cyber-attack that last month UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon revealed that cyber-weapons are to be added to the list of arms falling under the remit of the UN's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, which develops policy on weapons of mass destruction. Ban said recent breaches of critical systems represent "a clear and present threat to international security", since the public and private sectors have grown increasingly dependent on electronic information...

Nowadays, electronic attacks are increasingly seen as a cheap and easy way for one nation to attack another. "It's the ultimate bargain hunter's way of destroying everyone's way of life," says Glenn Zimmerman, a cyberspace specialist at the Pentagon. "It may even be free."

As if such attacks weren't worrying enough, military and private sector security experts attending a recent Cyber Warfare conference in London claimed attacks can only get worse because our electronic infrastructure is so poorly defended. What's more, computer scientists do not yet know how to defend critical systems against attacks, says Amit Yoran of NetWitness, an electronic security company based in Herndon, Virginia. "We are largely blind and ignorant of how to protect ourselves against cyber-attacks," he told delegates. "Advanced threats continue to evade deployed solutions."